Kirk Herbstreit reacts to 'horrific situation' at Michigan with Sherrone Moore

What unfolded at Michigan with Sherrone Moore this past week has left almost everyone in disbelief, including Kirk Herbstreit. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the coach went from employed to fired to arrested in the matter of a day.

The story of how all that came to be was even crazier, with Moore ultimately being charged with home invasion in the third degree, stalking and breaking and entering. Moore allegedly had a knife and threatened to commit suicide to a woman on the Michigan staff whom he is alleged to have had an “inappropriate relationship” with that led to his firing, according to ESPN.

Herbstreit, an analyst at ESPN, is closer to the situation than most and not just because of his job. Herbstreit’s son, Chase, is a freshman quarterback with the Wolverines.

Herbstreit addressed the topic on Nonstop, his podcast with Joey Galloway, calling it a “horrific situation.” However, he also commended the athletic department and interim coach Biff Poggi for how they have handled things.

“It’s a horrific situation,” Herbstreit said. “I know Sherrone Moore. My son, of course, plays there. I know the individual as well that is being talked about. Both people, the times I’ve been around them, are great people. They made mistakes and now you have a program that’s broken for now.

“There’s an investigation that’s going on within the entire athletic department. I can just tell you more as a parent how impressed I’ve been with Biff Poggi, who has taken over to be the interim head coach. It’s almost like he’s like a father. I mean he’s a coach, but he’s like a father. I just listen and I’m so impressed with what he’s been handed and the way he”s talking. It’s almost like, ‘As long as he’s there, everything is gonna be OK.'”

Now after a bizzare and surreal situation, Poggi has been tasked with keeping things together in the immediate future. However, the search is already on to find the permanent replacement that can keep the program in tact.

It’s unclear whether Poggi will still be the coach when Michigan faces Texas in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve. But right now the most important thing is making sure the team comes together during this time of adversity.

Continuing, Herbstreit argued that moments such as this can either bring a team closer or push them apart. But he believes it’s the former for the Wolverines and that they’re in good hands with the leadership.

“This is a team that has assistant coaches and coordinators that are trying to get ready to play a game,” he said. “They have nothing to do with any of this. they’re trying to get ready to go play Texas and they really don’t know who the head coach is gonna be. …Yet, for an unprecented, uncharted situation, they’re really doing as good of a job as they can at keeping this thing together. I would say the seniors and the leadership on this team is doing a really good job of just trying to keep it together get ready to go down there.

“Even though this is something that we’ve never seen, when teams — and I think maybe this is something people that have never been on a team don’t realize — when you go through something like this, it is either going to tear you apart and you’re going to be fragmented, or it’s going to pull you together in a way that is like, ‘Wow.’ It’s an ‘Us against everybody else’ kind of thing. …So it’s a difficult situation. The folks that are there are trying to do the best that they can. But I sense that this is a team that’s really gotten closer.”